Watercolor Classes - Painting and Northwest Watercolor Workshops

Have you wondered how to get the effect of people walking on a foggy beach -- some near and some farther away? Or how to show the illusion of gauze curtains?

This illusion is called the White Veil Effect. How to paint these may be the opposite of what you would think.

To show you I chose as my "victim" a rather wishy-washy harbor scene with my grandson and me in my rowboat.

I drew the curtains onto this painting. Where did I paint? In between -- trying to match the hues and making the original painting appear to be behind the curtains. To show the folds, some of the curtains have a 1/2 amount of the colors in used in the middle.

Fun? Before you try it on a painting, let's try it first with a box, a tissue and a gauze scarf.

In the first, you see my drawing -- two boxes, one with a neutral background and a white tissue, the second with a soft lavender tissue and no background color (I forced the photo above to make the pencil lines show up so it is darker than the following ones). Where would you paint next? Well, before we go on, why don't you draw a box and some tissue and let's do it together.

Paint a light blue over the entire box, including the parts of the tissue or scarf that are blocking the box. In my example there is a section that is implying the tissue/scarf is folded and has enough density to block the color of the box.
Dry it.

When the color is dry, glaze all of the box with the same color as before. How much stronger (more pigment) this is compared to the first glaze tells us the density of the tissue. If this glaze is way stronger, the tissue will appear more opaque than if it is not so strong (has more water in relation to the amount of pigment).

Hint: make up a puddle of the color before you start glazing. You don't want to have to mix halfway through the glaze.

Once The second glaze is dry, you take the same color (same puddle?) and glaze it on the 2 sides of the box that are not in the strongest light, skipping the tissue.

When that is dry, use the same hue but add a little dark. Here I added a little quinacridone violet and pthalo green to blacken my blue. Glaze the shadow side of the box. In the top one I tried a little cast shadow of the box and behind the tissue but I decided that, without looking at the object it wasn't that wise to make up the shadow shape.

Was that fun? Now, go and find a wimpy painting and see if you can perk it up by creating the illusion of gauze curtains. I am sure that now you can figure out how to show the further figures on the beach. And someone will ask you, "What did you paint over them to make them appear lighter." You can smile and say, "Trade secrets."

© 2010 Caroline Buchanan

Posted by Administrator in Technique Corner at 03:38 PM

To make it easier to find entries by subject, we have a new index. Because of the design of this section, the archive can only sort by date. Below is a list of titles from oldest to newest with the month in which you will find it. Hope it helps.

Late Winter painting May 2008
Organizing Outdoor Equipment June 2008
The Green Problem July 2008
Getting Darks August 2008
Journaling Your Painting Sept. 2008
Avoiding Mud Oct. 2008
Watercolor Cards Nov. 2008
Evelyn Gibb, student of the month Dec. 2008
Short cut cards! Dec. 2008
Lois Yoshida, student of the month January 2009
Space to Work January 2009
Pouring Paint February 2009
Finishing Your Poured Paintings March 2009
Valerie Mayer, student of the month March/April
Which Paints to Buy April, 2009
Stretching Your Paper June, 2009
Plein Air July, 2009
The Art of Looking August, 2009
Drafts of your Paintings Sept. 2009
NWWS Waterworks 2009 Sept. 2009
When is a Painting Finished ? Oct. 2009
Looking at Unfamiliar Art Nov. 2009
Painting 12-16- Paintings at a Time Dec. 2009
The Fire Dec. 2009
Why Do You Paint? Jan. 2010
The Flat Surface Feb. 2010
The White Veil Effect March 2010

Posted by Administrator in Technique Corner at 02:55 PM

A Movable Feast, Caroline Buchanan

How much do you think about designing for the flat of the paper? Most of us have spent a great deal of effort learning how to make things appear to be 3-dimensional in our art work. However, no matter how well we create the illusion of believable space, we greatly improve our painting if we also design for the two dimensional surface of the paper.

But first, take a look at the painting above, A Movable Feast, as it appeared in an American Artist Magazine article Less is More, 1997.

You are looking at a flat piece of white paper with some trapezoidal shapes scattered over it. Nowhere in this painting did I draw the edge of the wall. But you SEE 4 walls and a walkway because of the implied perspective in those trapezoids. Do you find it impossible to see the flat of the paper?

We commonly show depth on a two dimensional surface by some combination of :

scale -- same shapes are larger forward and smaller back

overlap -- telling us what is in front and what is behind

perspective -- organized recessional movement toward the horizon

modeling -- lighter toward the light source, darker in shade

The study of the Aigaili harbor in monochrome can be appreciated both as a 2-dimensional design and as the implied 3-dimensional harbor. Take a moment to look at the interlocking white sha

pe, the middle grays, and mostly scattered small darks. Notice how the darker water pushes the large boat toward us. Aigaili Harbor, value study

What happens when we turn to color? Here is a chart to remind you that:

warms come forward, cools recede

light comes forward, darks recede

intense colors come forward, dulls recede

In the painting to the right, the exercise was to paint color change, keeping the values the same. There is a clear pattern

of white shapes and of linking darks, plus a play of lights against darks and darks against lights. There is a believeable 3-dimensional implied space and a fairly interesting 2-dimensional painting.

Now take the same scene and t

ry to break the rules listed above, trying to NOT imply 3-dimensions? In the study to the left, the grouping is turned parallel to the picture plane (less sense of space). Recession is violated by the table top, yellow-chair bottom, the yellow floor trapezoid. Yet arbitrarily the seat of the blue chair is in perspective. The bottoms of its legs are not. The pattern of yellows on the 2-dimensional surface are just that - pattern. You can't quite get the floor to lie down, nor the warm wall to stay farther back than the cool one. Is the center of interest the flower and vase on the orange table or the one on the far wall?

Is this a mindless exercise? I don't think so. Try one like it. Use as may "rule breakers" as you can. Paint each shape flat with no modeling. Do you see how it makes you THINK about which color to use -- how light, dark, warm, cool, bright, dull? How each relates to the others?

Next, take an idea for a painting and try designing it with linking lights, midtones and darks. Look for the links even if you have shapes that imply space and recession.

For example, look at the f

ollowing two photos:
Each is a "stack" of people -- overlapping shapes, larger forward, smaller in the rear. But note how the red shirt comes forward and beats out (or competes with) the forward figure in the right photo and how the blue shirt's intensity rivals the forward figure for point of focus in the left photo. Both designs could be made much stronger.

How could you design the left one so that the man on the donkey was the focus for sure? Try it and then design it so the woman in the hat is the focus? Try it with flat values first,-- maybe change the values of the wall on the right, making less contrast there. Try unifying the values on the man on the donkey if you want th

e woman to be the focus. Make her shirt the value of her shorts if you want the man to be the focus. Have a drawing that is a pleasing 2-dimensional design. Do you want to get rid of the box rectangle above the doorway? What else will make it stronger? Then do a flat shape painting trying different colors. Look for links in hues just as you had links in value.

How about the photo on the right? Have you decided that the 3 strong dark areas are too dark? What if you make the negative area of the background less intrusive? What about the man between the red shirt and the teal shirt? How about putting him in a shirt the same value as the red, but a rosy violet? Do the figures link better? How about the white sneakers? Do you see your way to a stronger design? Do some value studies and color plans to see what you get.

For an example of a painting in which both the two-dimensional design and the implied 3-dimensional design are apparent, look at Two Guys Named Moe. This painting

was developed from sketches I did at a live Dixieland performance. The challenge I gave myself was to have a unified background of the same value while shifting hue as it rolled from right to left. That same value shape continues without an edge up and under the brim of the hat and on down the face and neck of the musican on the left. In addition, while the background is the same value (changing color) across the top, the hue stays the same it goes from the top of the painting to the bottom while the value gets lighter and lighter until it fuses with the lit portions of the figures.

Now try to move on from your studies to a painting. You may want to use the figures in the photos above. Keep them simple -- see them as shapes of value. Or, if you prefer not to use people, here is a windmill that implies strong 3-dimensional recession. Think about the list of what goes forward and what goes back on the 2-dimensional plane and see if you can make an interesting pattern on the paper. As you try making different shapes warmer or cooler or lighter, or darker, brighter, duller, see if you don't become more

aware of how you can make your painting as handsome on it's 2-dimensional surface as it is in implying a 3-dimensional representation. It is a better painting, isn't it?

Remember, the sky doesn't always have to be blue. Nor is white always white.

Victorian Gentleman Awaits Interested Party

Happy painting,
Caroline

©Caroline Buchanan, 2010

Posted by Administrator in Technique Corner at 04:10 AM

The start of the new year is a time for review, for letting go, evaluating, and setting new challenges. A dialogue with several student/friends over the past months, have lead to reflections why do we paint? A good topic for the start of a new year.

From my years of being connected with the arts and with students at different stages of growth in their painting I would like to divide the answer of why people paint into five categories.

learning something new and challenging
expressing a part of themselves that would go untapped if they failed to learn to paint
being able to create something that pleases themselves and others -- particularly friends and family
being able to create something that rewards them financially -- either because that is the way our culture shows approval, or because they wish to learn a living doing something they enjoy
being able to create something that gains acceptance in juried shows, wins awards and recognition

Learning something new and challenging
This student is easy and fun -- they are open to anything, willing to try, to experiment, to fall on their faces brush themselves off and try again. Their lack of ego-involvement gives a spark to the class and helps others move out of the restrictive mentality of "trying to get it right." Often these people learn new and exciting things about themselves. Often one insight leads to another and you don't know where they will end.